


Changes

by 15dogs



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Everyone Thinks They're Together, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hogwarts Prefect Remus Lupin, Oneshot, Protective Remus Lupin, Young Remus Lupin, imagine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27891181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/15dogs/pseuds/15dogs
Summary: Remus has been your best friend since you were kids but you begin to worry once you hear that everyone in school thinks that you’re more than friends.
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 50





	Changes

**Author's Note:**

> cross-posted from tumblr (@15-dogs)

“You’ll be able to choose your partners for this,” McGonagall shouted over the commotion of your first Transfiguration project of the year. 

You stood at the back of the classroom alongside the rest of your classmates, mouthing a seductive “hi” at that Hufflepuff Lenny you were quite taken to. Lenny ducked his head with a blush and a smile, wiggling his fingers back at you.

“So,” McGonagall began, “partner up!”

“Hey, Len-”

You took no more than two steps towards the boy before Remus grabbed your hand from the air, interlocking your fingers. Your head whipped around and you glared at him. He sent you a wide smile back which made you groan; stupid Remus ruining your stupidly perfect plan to spend time with Lenny.

“I kind of already had someone in mind to work with, you know,” you complained as he guided you to your shared desk.

“Well, so did I, and it was you. Funny how those things work out.”

“Hilarious, even,” you grumbled.

You worked together in near silence save for Remus’s occasional comment about how you two should conduct your project. You weren’t mad at him for long even though you pretended you were― how could you be? Remus was your best friend, everybody knew that. You two were neighbors before his accident happened when he was young. After that, he moved every place he could to avoid suspicion, but you still sent him letters about missing him and care packages once a month and he still sent you his favorite book recommendations and sent you pictures of scenery that reminded him of you. Hogwarts was like a blessing because you could see one another again and you knew he wasn’t going anywhere. He mattered a whole lot to you but you’d never tell him that directly, his head was big enough.

When class had ended, you lingered by Remus’s side for him to pack up his things. You desperately wanted to talk to Lenny before he left but Remus seemed to be moving a thousand times slower than normal. You bounced your leg anxiously with a grimace and a smirk appeared on his face.

“Waiting for something?” he asked. Although you feigned anger, his smile was too contagious.

“Not anymore,” you hurriedly added before darting away. 

However, as you were nearly a foot away from Lenny, your textbook disappeared from your grasp. You turned on your heel to see Remus with your textbook in one hand and his wand in the other, a mischievous glint in his eyes. You laughed wryly and drew your wand but Remus quickly disarmed you, your wand flipping backwards into the wall from your hand.

“You’re dead!” you threatened as you ran full force at him. He began to chuckle but laughed even harder when you attempted to jump for your book. All he had to do was raise it over his head.

“What’s the matter, (Y/N)?” he teased as you clawed at his sweater.

“I’m not afraid to climb you like a tree, Remus!”

Remus looked down at you and you swore you saw his blue-green eyes flicker down towards your lips. Your jumping attempts faltered as he licked his lips.

“I’d like to see that happen,” he muttered, his breath fanning against your face, smelling of fresh mint with a little bit of chocolate mixed in.

“Yeah, but we wouldn’t!” Sirius retorted from the doorway. Your head snapped over towards the group of irritated Gryffindors with a squeak. “Hurry up, mate! We have places to be!”

Remus slowly deposited your textbook into your hands, his lips twitching upwards into a smirk at your embarrassed blush. “For you, princess,” he joked before stalking off to join the rest of his friends. He spared one more glance over his shoulder at you as he walked off, causing you to blush even further.

Why did you get butterflies when he did that?

“Okay, okay, I’m gonna do it,” you said to Marlene with determination. Marlene simply responded with an excited squeal.

It was the morning of a Hogsmeade trip and you were set on asking Lenny if he’d like to go out with you during it. You saw him across the hall, fiddling with his house scarf every few minutes. You shook your hands to release the wave of nerves you felt before taking a few steps towards the boy. But, of course, fortune has a way of stopping those sorts of things― and by fortune, you mean Remus.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he appeared in your pathway towards Lenny, consequently having you rebound against his chest. He gripped your arms to keep you from falling back and you attempted to wiggle out of his grasp to no avail.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” You motioned towards Lenny with a nod of your head but Remus refused to turn around.

“It doesn’t seem that you’re looking at all, love. You walked right into me.” He crossed his arms defiantly over his chest, the lean muscle of his bicep flexing from underneath his sweater. Your eyes lingered a moment too long on the sight so you scolded yourself, wondering why you would even look in the first place.

“You walked into  _ me! _ Being your friend is incredibly difficult,” you whined. Remus tutted and shook his head.

“That was rude. Cruel, even. I’m going to have to use my prefect powers and dock points from you for that little comment there.” Remus looked straight ahead, sparing a tiny glance down at you to gauge your reaction.

You scoffed. “That’s entirely unreasonable! Besides, we’re in the same house, you’re docking points from your own house.”

“I know. I’m incredibly unbiased, aren’t I?”

You groaned, stamping your foot while the rest of the Marauders joined the fray. They didn’t bother to ask what was going on because they knew from experience it was a long winded response to another “they started it!” and they weren’t in the mood to hear that again.

“Are you serious about the whole docking points thing?” As soon as you finished speaking, Sirius opened his mouth to make a pun but you cut him off. “Not you,” you shot, receiving a snicker from Peter, Sirius, and James.

“I absolutely am. And for doubting my power I’m going to dock more points off. Learn to respect your superiors, (Y/N).”

“You irk me,” you mumbled at Remus’s giddy grin. “Fine. What do I have to do to make it up to you so you don’t dock points?”

“I am so glad you asked because I had something perfect in mind.”

You shifted uneasily. Remus definitely had found something perfect― for him, not for you.

“And what would that be?”

“Go to Hogsmeade with me?” A wide grin spread across his face that made your heart flutter, strangely. You gathered yourself and shook your head.

“I was going to ask Lenny!” Your hands moved erratically through the air. For a moment, you thought you saw Remus’s smile fall.

“Why would you do that?” Sirius asked. Everyone’s eyes were on him, glaring at the boy. He shrugged. “What? Honest question.”

“Because,” you hissed, “I fancy him.”

“No you don’t,” said Sirius nonchalantly. You leaned in towards him, eyes narrowing on his confused face.

“Pardon?” you sneered. Before Sirius could respond, James whacked the back of his head while Remus shot him an evil glare. You hummed in content, dismissing the awkwardness of the interaction.

Remus studied you sympathetically and you managed to beat down the feeling that blossomed up from your stomach when he looked at you. Finally, you grabbed his hand and dragged him off.

“Fine. But it’s not a date.”

Remus smiled dumbly. “Never said it was.”

You and Remus spent the day together, effectively abandoning his friends because their taunting was just too much. You two had landed together in a little secluded bookstore that wasn’t known to many but well known to both of you as you went there together on your first Hogsmeade trip.

“This place hasn’t changed a bit,” you noted, running your fingers down the spines of the books. “Three years and nothing has changed.”

“I’d say things have changed a little.” You gasped at Remus’s closeness. His hand ghosted over yours and for some reason you couldn’t move. He leaned down to whisper into your ear, making you shiver involuntarily. “But change can be good, can’t it?”

“Depends,” you said back, ignoring the strange sensation that Remus’s slightly raspy voice gave you.

“Depends? On what?”

“What’s changing.”

Remus finally gave you some space, moving to the shelf opposite you. He shrugged with a sort of understanding but there was a little sorrow behind his eyes. You walked up to him and took his hands in yours with a kind smile.

“What’s wrong?” you asked. Remus looked at you lovingly, a smile tugging at his lips.

“Things won’t ever change between us, right?”

You frowned, taken aback. “What would make you think we would?” Remus strayed his gaze from you so you leaned over to meet his eyes. “Is this about Lenny?”

“It’s definitely not  _ not _ about him.” You rolled your eyes at his comment.

“Things aren’t going to change because I fancy someone, Remus. I’m sure you fancy someone too but is that going to make us drift apart?”

Remus’ eyes went wide. He gulped and shook his head. “No, that absolutely won’t bring us apart.”

“See?” you sighed. “We’ll be no different no matter who we love.” The sandy haired boy whipped his head towards you in horror.

“Are you in love with him?”

“What?” you chuckled. “No, that was hypothetical love.” Remus let out a breath of relief, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “Why? Does that make you upset? Because if it does then yes, I’m in love with him.”

Remus pushed your shoulder playfully while he teased, “Aren’t you clever?”

Okay, today was the day you were going to do it. Time to ask Lenny out. You had been jumpy all during Transfiguration and Remus knew it, scaring you when he could or joking with you to ease the tension. Needless to say, you were not happy with the boy.

But you couldn’t think about that. You had to focus, otherwise the words would barely form in your mouth. James had pulled Remus from class the second that it ended, claiming he needed to strategize for the upcoming moon. Remus complained the whole way out, quietly reprimanding James not to be so loud.

Once Remus and his friends had left, you approached Lenny. He waved his friends off and greeted you with a gentle grin.

“Hi,” you began.

“Er, hello.”

“I was...well, I was wondering if...I mean we don’t have to if you don’t want to but, uh…” You felt like an idiot; why wouldn’t the words come out.

“Yes?” he prompted.

“Right.” You took a deep breath before you said, “Would you like to go on a date to Hogsmeade soon?”

To your horror, Lenny furrowed his brows in confusion. He blinked in shock a time or two more, glancing around the emptied classroom. “I’m sorry, did you break up with your boyfriend?”

Now it was your turn to be confused. You laughed at his question before realizing he was serious. “Oh, you’re not joking,” you muttered dismally. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“But you did, didn’t you?”

“...no? What are you talking about, Lenny?”

“You and that Lupin fellow are going together, aren’t you?”

Your world came crashing down around you. Did Remus tell him that you were? Oh man, you were going to have his head on a platter by the end of the night.

“Who told you that?” you asked through grit teeth. Lenny shrugged.

“Nobody told me, but everyone knows you two are together.”

You thought you might faint. “Everyone?” Your voice was weak with nerves.

“Yes, everyone. You two are dating, correct?”

You shook your head and stormed to the classroom door. “If we were before, we definitely aren’t now.”

Your anger carried you straight to the Gryffindor common room, prepared to have a row with Remus. However, as you entered the setting, your fury faltered. Why were you even mad at him? He didn’t do anything wrong, it was all just rumors that neither of you had started.

So, to keep yourself busy from reigniting your irritation, you went to your room to create the little care package you made for Remus every month. 

As the next two days went by, you could barely speak to Remus. In all your other courses with him besides Transfiguration, you sat with your other friends. By the time the full moon came around, you hadn’t spoken to him once so you decided it might be best for a visit.

You knocked on the door of Remus’s dorm, package in hand. James cracked the door open slightly and slid out.

“Moony’s sleeping. You know how he gets,” he explained. You shrugged, pretending like those words weren’t devastating to hear.

“Would you give this to him when he wakes up?” You handed him the small brown package which was tied up with twine. James nodded appreciatively and made his way back into the room.

“You know, he’s mad about these things. He’s kept every card you’ve written him in them. Says it’s the only thing helping him through the night.”

Your heart panged with something familiar, yet undetectable. Before James could shut the door, you wedged your foot in it. He looked up at you in bewilderment and then joined you back outside the room.

“Do you think I act like his girlfriend?” you asked in one breath. James let out a low whistle.

“I feel like this is a conversation for Remus, not me-”

“Answer the question, James. Please.”

James teetered on the balls of his feet as he tried to come up with a proper response. “Would it be a bad thing if I said yes?”

You wanted to argue, but you couldn’t. The words weren’t there. You blushed heavily and shook your head slightly. “That’s kind of what I’m worried about.”

“What’s there to be worried about?”

“I’m worried about falling for him and him not falling back,” you confessed. You were shocked at the ease of which the words tumbled from your mouth but it was too late to take them back.

“That must be the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“(Y/N), you’re already mad for Moony. None of us are blind, and even if we were we could still see it. And you don’t need to worry about Remus not fancying you back.” Your heart swelled at his words.

“What are you saying?”

James took a few steps back into the room, his face peeking out from the crack. “You know what I’m saying.”

The full moon came and went. Even though it was no longer than any other month, it felt like you were destined to stir in your emotions. You knew that the guys got back in around sunrise and you were worried that you wouldn’t be awake to see them but it turned out not to be an issue seeing as how your anxiety kept you up all night.

When your dorm flooded with light, you rushed down to the hospital wing. You surveyed the curtained beds, picking to sit next to the one Remus normally was in. Slowly, you pulled back the curtains to see Remus, bandaged and sleeping, his chest rising and falling with his peaceful breaths.

Looking at him, your heart filled with love. But, the longer you looked, the more nervous you began to feel. You were about to confess your feelings to your childhood best friend! So you shook out the nerves and fell into the chair beside his bed and began to speak.

“Okay,” you started, “here we go. This is more for myself, this is a practice round so I don’t have to see his-...your face when I tell you this. Merlin, I feel so stupid for never noticing before. It was always how I felt around you and then felt around guys that I fancied and I could distinctly tell those two feelings apart because they  _ were _ different. But...Godric, I can’t believe I’m saying this...they were different because I,” you swallowed thickly before continuing, “I like you. A lot. Insanely so. It drives me mad that I never noticed it but I was scared of things being different so I pushed it down but...I’m not so scared anymore. I fancy you, Remus.”

You exhaled with confidence as you had gotten the words off your chest to a sleeping Remus. Well, you thought he was sleeping. Remus opened one eye and asked, “Are you finished yet?”

You nearly jumped out of your seat at the sound of his voice. Your nostrils flared with anger and you snatched a pillow off the bed beside you to smack him with it. He cackled in between whacks while you reprimanded him.

“(Y/N)...(Y/N)...love, please! I’m only teasing you! I fancy you too! I fancy you too!”

Remus’ words caused your beating to slow to a halt. Hope blossomed in your chest and a dumb grin grew on your lips. “You fancy me?”

“I thought it was obvious.” Remus reached up to you, tugging you down onto the bed. You locked eyes with him and subconsciously leaned down towards him.

“It was!” Sirius groaned from the bed across from them. You rolled your eyes and sat back up.

“We were busy having a moment, here!” you cried, yanking the curtain shut. You turned back to face Remus who was busy fighting a snicker. “Where were we?”

Before Remus pulled you down against his lips, he whispered, “Allow me to remind you.”

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr (@15-dogs) and wattpad (@15dogs)!!


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